Section 25 - Always Now (5xCD Box)

Release date: August 9, 2024

5xCD in clamshell box.
77 tracks.
32 page booklet.

Factory Benelux presents an expanded 5xCD box set edition of Always Now, the debut album by cult Factory Records group Section 25, produced by legendary sonic architect Martin Hannett and sleeved by Peter Saville.

Recorded as a trio at Pink Floyd’s Britannia Row studio in London in January 1981, Always Now combined austere postpunk rhythm and noise with elements of Can, Krautrock and modern psychedelia. Key tracks include Friendly Fires, Dirty Disco and New Horizon, along with C.P. (a collaboration with Hannett) and Hit (extensively sampled by Kanye West for the track F.M.L. on his 2016 album The Life of Pablo).

As well as the core album Disc 1 also includes several non-album singles from 1980 and 1981, including Charnel Ground, Je Veux Ton Amour and debut EP Girls Don’t Count – the latter produced by mentors Rob Gretton and Ian Curtis (of Joy Division).

Disc 2 offers a complete live show professionally recorded at Groningen (Netherlands) on 26 October 1980, as part of a Factory package tour, as well as a John Peel Session recorded in January 1981.

Disc 3 is part-improvised second studio album The Key of Dreams, recorded and produced by the band themselves a few months after Always Now, and released by Factory Benelux in June 1982.

Disc 4 consists of further experimental material recorded in 1981 and self-released on a cassette called Illuminus Illumina. The  disc closes with an extended live encore jam recorded with all four members of New Order at Reading University on 8 May 1981.

Disc 5 captures the band live on tour in Europe and North America in early 1982, including dates at New York Danceteria and the 9:30 Club in Washington. The set was originally intended for release as a live album on Factory America, with the landmark gig at Danceteria given a surprise onscreen puff by none other than Madonna on her recent ‘Celebration’ world tour.

The 32 page booklet features unseen images by noted photographer Philippe Carly and texts by founder members Larry and Vin Cassidy. Also included is the first ever interview with guitarist Paul Wiggin, whose sudden departure in late 1981 saw Tony Wilson try (and fail) to recruit pre-Smiths teenager Johnny Marr as replacement.

“One of the best albums Britain's second city has unleashed” (Uncut); “In 1980 their bass-driven mantras were thoughtlessly dismissed as second-rate Joy Division, but hindsight judges them more kindly. The wind-dried skeins of their blasted guitar harmonics and skimped electronics gauntly cling to the songs’ skeletal frames. With telltale titles like Babies in the Bardo their Buddhist interests hang heavy over these early stirrings. But, combining a bass-led drone with a characteristic groaning vocal, Charnel Ground succinctly pins down Section 25's pre-disco appeal” (The Wire)

5xCD box set tracklist:

Disc 1:

1. Friendly Fires
2. Dirty Disco
3. C.P.
4. Loose Talk (Costs Lives)
5. Inside Out
6. Melt Close
7. Hit
8. Babies in the Bardo
9. Be Brave
10. New Horizon
11. Haunted
12. Charnel Ground
13. Human Puppets
14. Knew Noise
15. Up To You
16. Girls Don’t Count
17. Oyo Achel Ada
18. After Image
19. Red Voice
 
Disc 2:

1. One True Path (Peel)
2. Babies in the Bardo (Peel)
3. Hit (Peel)
4. Je Veux Ton Amour
5. Friendly Fires (outtake)
6. One True Path (outtake)
7. Loose Talk (Costs Lives) (live 1980)
8. Human Puppets (live 1980)
9. Knew Noise (live 1980)
10. Friendly Fires (live 1980)
11. Girls Don’t Count (live 1980)
12. New Horizon (live 1980)
13. Haunted (live 1980)
14. You’re On Your Own (live 1980)
15. One Step (live 1981)
 
Disc 3:
1. Always Now
2. Visitation
3. Regions
4. The Wheel
5. No Abiding Place
6. Once Before
7. There Was a Time
8. Wretch
9. Sutra
10. The Beast
11. Sakura
12. Hold Me
13. Sakura (Matrixmix)
14. You Leave Me No Choice
 
Disc 4:
1. Fallen Monument
2. Are You There?
3. Virtually Everything
4. Tape Loop
5. Subferior
6. Cry
7. In the Garden of Eden
8. Rigi Rigi
9. Floating
10. Openingt
11. Alone Pt 1
12. Untitled
13. Rose Apple Island
14. Open Those Eyes
15. Reading Uni Jam with New Order
16. Mirror (live 1980)
 
Disc 5:
1. God’s Playground Pt 1 (live 1982)
2. Babies in the Bardo (live 1982)
3. Trident (live 1982)
4. Dirty Disco (live 1982)
5. Sakura (live 1982)
6. Inside Out (live 1982)
7. One True Path (live 1982)
8. Floating (live 1982)
9. The Beast (live 1982)
10, You Leave Me No Choice (live 1982)
11. God’s Playground Pt 2 (live 1982)
12. Warhead (live 1983)
13. Haunted (live 1982)